The top 8 online fashion stores in Toronto

The top Toronto-based online fashion stores are the future of shopping. Though it's nice (and moreover, favourable) to see and touch products in the flesh just before making a purchase, e-commerce is on a steady rise. With services like free shipping and return policies, it's becoming more and more convenient to choose shopping via World Wide Web over the hassle of sifting through racks and waiting in line. These particular web shops make the guilty pleasure of sitting at home and browsing for hours feel so right that some don't even need to exist as a brick-and-mortar retailer.

Here are my top online fashion stores in Toronto.

Uncle Otis
Uncle Otis's online shop is the product of meticulous, dedicated work - and it shows. The straightforward layout takes nothing away from the clothing, which is always photographed and posted ASAP, and is sometimes modeled by the store's very own. Brands like Wings + Horns and Kin are represented so immaculately, it's almost like seeing the real thing.

Bicyclette Boutique
Bicyclette Boutique's brick-and-mortar shop is like a dreamland for girly girls, with its pristine appearance and slew of feminine products by brands like nOir Jewelry and Wildfox Couture. Their online boutique has successfully translated this atmosphere to the virtual world; the sparkly splash page and cutesy girls modeling the clothing almost feel like a unicorn sighting.

Shopcaster
Shopcaster knows it can be hard for small-time Toronto retailers to create a significant web presence, so they've made it their mission to be the best online platform for local brands. Each hosted store has the freedom to decide how to shoot their merchandise and when to update, but Shopcaster's simple layout makes them all pleasant to peruse; it's no surprise names like Coal Miner's Daughter and Of A Kind have opted for this type of web shop.

Sydney's
Just like their clothing, Sydney's online presence is tailored and all about the details. Visitors who are shopping for only the best menswear (but have no time to waltz into the Queen St. West store during work hours) are welcomed with an artsy slideshow uninterrupted by the clean navigation bar. A white background with the faintest bit of imagery creates visual interest and multiple views of the merchandise put the cherry on top of a pleasant shopping experience.

Shrimpton Couture
The queen of all vintage web shops, Shrimpton Couture owes all of its success to founder Cherie Federau's almost-suffocating standards of quality. Everything from her unlabeled flapper dresses to her massive selection of high-end names is guaranteed to be in the best condition possible. Plus, with a killer return policy and layaway services, you have nothing to lose.

Nomad
As one of Toronto's menswear favourites, it only makes sense that Nomad would take advantage of the growth of e-commerce. After all, the less time a guy spends in a retail store, the better (although what a good-looking retail store it is). The super minimal website leaves the clothes to do all the talking, and combined with a frequently updated blog and accessible promotions, Nomad's online shop is unstoppable.

L A B & iD
L A B & iD is one of the very few Toronto-based stores that are really pushing the boundaries of fashion for both men and women. The products, styling, and aesthetic of the entire web shop are unconventional to say the least; the selection of designers they carry - like Proudrace and Roberto Piqueras - come together to create the perfect mix of minimalism and maximalism, but with an urban twist.

Ukamaku
Ukamaku is the link between small-but-talented Canadian designers and the world. With a community of about 50 high-end as well as casual brands - including Toronto's own Emily Woudenberg, Rachel Sin, and Sarah Stevenson - the strictly-online website is a clean, professional platform from which to buy local, all in the comfort of your own home.

Everyone values something, some people spend their money on fancy dinner, some on booze, some on hobbies, electronics, whatever. Some people like fashion and spend their money on clothes. You're living in a bubble if you think $400 for a pair of shoes is anywhere near the ceiling on this sort of thing. Go look at a pair of shoes at Harry Rosen.

I don't get who buys these indie brands. These are brands 99.9% of the population have never heard of and probably will never hear of. More than half of these brands will probably be gone within 5 years. Yet, you are paying legitimate designer brand prices for what is essentially a no name brand? Really? Instead of buying a pair of prada/gucci/armani shoes, you'd go buy a pair of nomad for the same price? Really?

And don't people who want to drop $300 for a pair of jeans, $500 for a pair of shoes want other people to see them buying these things? Isn't it an ego thing too? Who would go online to buy it and have no one see them dropping $1500 on 3 items?

Its an .. i dont want to purchase mass market goods that have been put into stores by buyers that bottom dollered chinese factories to get the best price while everyone on the streets are looking the same in their throw away one time use trend garments. paying 400$ for a pair of shoes gets you a pair of shoes that dont damage your feet if you wear them for more than a few hours.

spending that much money doesnt always buy you quality and it certainly doesnt always buy you a name. not one that YOU would know anyways. why would you be so vainly thinking people need to buy expensive things to show it off to YOU.

Indie brands? what are those? privately owned labels that someone has launched outside of a internationally owned company? ohhh sorry. that must be hurting our canadian economy by putting our hard earned dollars BACK INTO OUR OWN financial system.

stop hating on what you cant have and post your comments on things that are relevant to you. shopping is obviously something you spend little to no time doing, so your opinion on which toronto based online store is null and void.

That's like saying when you buy a hamburger from Lick's ($5.00) you're just paying for the name and you could have the same hamburger at McDonalds ($.99)

A $400 pair of shoes will almost certainly have better leather and better construction than a pair from Walmart.

And most people wouldn't know the names anyway, so the $400 pair of shoes guy really isn't looking for you to appreciate the name. A good shoe like Alden is $400 and a cheap inferior shoe like Grenson is half that, but people don't know either name. And they kind of look the same if you don't know what you're looking at.

Don't spend 400 dollars on a pair of shoe's unless they're made of gold. Very few shoe's require that amount of money to be manufactured and made with a profit - made in Canada, or made in China, or Italy for that matter. If you really have that much money to spend, buy a 100 dollar pair, and give 300 to charity - there are literally millions of people dying of poverty in the world, and here we are debating how we need to spend 400 dollars to cover our feet.

I do appreciate good quality. There's a reason why very very few items in my wardrobe are made in China, India, Pakistan or other similar countries.
I can have whatever I want and do shop quite a bit. I have seen the quality and style of many indie labels. It's a personal choice but when I need to spend $400 on a pair of shoes or $300 for a pair of jeans, I tend to go back to my core brands of Prada and Armani (but I'm also quite specific on where the product is made).

I can understand people not wanting to buy mass market goods but I don't get people who spend ridiculous amounts of money on no name and average quality stuff.

I wear $22 shoes with $350 orthotics in them. My orthotics are 100% made in Canada. :) I buy the $22 shoes from Walmart because they are the only shoes I've found that fit my feet comfortably, don't give me blisters and cause no pain. I'm currently sitting next to a $300 pair of leather shoes I've worn half a dozen times but don't like because they are impossible to break in. The $22 shoes last a year but I don't care about replacing them because they're so cheap.

Doesn't matter how something is made. It matters if the shape of the shoe matches the shape of your feet.

People just don't get retail!!! That pair of $500 boots usually costs the independent retailer about $350-$375 Plus taxes and shipping before it hits the floor. The retailer makes not much profit,factor Rent,Heat,Hydro,Employees so that $500 tag doesn't make them much profit.

Yes,$500 is WOW, I only spend usually $160 for some boots myself.

There' also a Clause in all the contracts with the name brand company's,you pay middle man price and must have a store front. They can't buy direct like the big company's.

Another really common thing people complain about,T-Shirts, We typically pay $13-17 Cost for a T-Shirt and Charge maybe $28.99 or $32.99.

But all the Little retails rip people off and Boathouse is God.

Those $89 skate brand shoes cost about $50-60 a Pair and Supra is about $75+

I hope that Support Local isn't dead. If we allow the bigger companies to put the smaller ones out of business then 75% of Canadians will lose their jobs with small businesses and have to reach out to the bigger companies who they may have to take a paycut with.

Revenue Canada put out a report last year saying that 75% of Canada is run by small businesses. I myself do love to shop at the biggest retailers out there, but I still dedicate some of my time to exploring smaller businesses in the fashion world. The independent boutiques and smaller online shops.

This is the same for restaurants, if you aren't going to support local small business fashion stores then why would you support local small business restaurants? Might as well spend all your time eating at the Olive Gardens and Pickle Barrel's of the world.

Please don't stop supporting local businesses. Those bigger companies also started as local businesses, everyone has to start somewhere and if people start killing the "local" then 75% of canada will be out of work. And in 300 years if things haven't improved and only big businesses run the country, then we will be no better than 3rd world countries.

One more thing- you'd be surprised to find out that the "local business" markup is a 2.2times and that the big businesses such as The Bay, Holts, Gap, HM, Aritzia ect... Their markup is 2.6times the wholesale costs.

So even though the bigger guys get discounts for buying huge quantities, they never pass them along to the customer because they have HUGE costs for upkeeping their stores.

I know this because I sell 3 wholesale collections to both The Bay, Aritzia and 250 local independent stores around Canada.

Wow - very interesting read of all the comments above. I can see that people are very passionate about their thoughts on retail.
I own www.orangefish.ca - a small Canadian online business. We try to offer fab fresh finds every Friday and love to find items that are difficult for the average person to find in Canada.
Please feel free to check out the site and give me your feedback... the good, bad and the ugly... I can take it. Thanks!

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